Make Christmas easier with a simple Christmas planner

Christmas presents - items to add to your Christmas planner.

Christmas can involve a surprising amount of planning. There are gifts to buy, meals to make, events to remember, cards to send, and so much more. Having a Christmas planner, where you can store everything in one place will make this busy time of year easier.

Whether you use a notebook, a planner or create your own Christmas binder, the aim is the same: to make Christmas planning simpler, and help you feel more organised for the festive season.

In this post you’ll find practical Christmas planner ideas that you can include in your planner to help you organise everything from gifts and meals, Christmas cards, family traditions, your Christmas Day schedule and more.

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What is a Christmas planner?

A Christmas planner is where you keep everything relating to your family’s Christmas in one place, think of it as your Christmas planning hub.

This means that instead of having gift ideas in your phone, Christmas events in your family calendar, recipes saved in multiple places, or gift lists on post-it notes, you have one location where everything lives.

What to use as a planner

Here are some ideas of what you can use as a planner.

A notebook

If you prefer keeping things simple, then a plain notebook is perfect, you can use as many pages as you like for the sections you want to include.

A planner

Christmas planners make planning for Christmas easy because they come pre-printed with everything you need for an organised Christmas, such as a Christmas planning checklist, gift giving ideas, a menu organiser, budget planner, shopping lists, and more.

A Christmas binder

If you’d like to create your own Christmas planner so it’s customisable to your Christmas needs, then a Christmas binder is the solution you’re looking for.

To create your own Christmas binder you’ll need:

What to put in your planner

Here are some ideas of what you can put in your planner.

When deciding what to put in your planner, choose the ideas that are relevant to your family, and ignore the rest.

Calendar

One of the first things you can put in your planner is a calendar, so you can see what you have to organise, and where you have to be over the holiday season.

Some things you can put into your calendar include:

School events
Parties
Christmas markets
Pantomimes and shows
When to start Elf on the Shelf
Christmas Jumper Day
Nativity performances
Family gatherings
Christmas shopping dates
Christmas Eve plans
Christmas Day plans
Boxing Day plans
Gift delivery deadlines

Phone, gingerbread, Christmas present - items to add to your Christmas planner.

Christmas planning checklist

A Christmas planning checklist helps you to see everything you need to organise for Christmas, and can be used for future years.

The best way to determine what to put on your Christmas planning checklist is to start by writing a brain dump, which is a list of everything you need or want to do before Christmas.

Your brain dump might include:

Buy wrapping supplies
Buy and wrap Christmas gifts
Order and send Christmas cards
Buy stocking fillers
Search for advent calendar fillers
Plan Christmas meals
Order Christmas food
Check Christmas decorations
Attend school events
Book Christmas activities
Plan Christmas Day
Prepare guest bedrooms

Once you’ve written everything down, decide what items are important to you and your family, and don’t worry about the rest.

Once you have your final list you can then break the items down into smaller weekly tasks, add dates to them, and schedule them in your calendar.

Budget

Christmas spending can quickly add up, so including a Christmas budget in your planner can help you keep track of what you’re spending.

When working out your budget, start by deciding how much you want to spend overall, then break your budget down into different categories.

For example:

Christmas cards and postage
Christmas activities
Christmas decorations
Food and drinks
Gifts
Hosting
Travel
Wrapping paper and gift tags

You can also keep a running record of what you’ve spent throughout the season.

Gift list

A Christmas gift list is an essential Christmas planning section for most families.

To do this, create a list of everyone you need to buy for, then add gift ideas underneath their names.

You might include:

Children
Partner
Parents
Grandparents
Extended family
Friends
Teachers
Neighbours
Work colleagues
Host gifts
Spare gifts
Teacher gifts
Secret Santa gifts

Supplies list

Having a list of the Christmas supplies is another great addition to your planner, and one that can also be reused year after year.

This list includes all the things you need to buy that aren’t presents, like:

If you do a lot of Christmas shopping online, you could also include the following details:

Item
Retailer
Order date
Expected delivery
Delivered

Christmas card list

If you send Christmas cards, having a Christmas card list allows you to keep addresses in one place, so you don’t have to search for them every Christmas.

For this list you could record the names and addresses of the people you want to send cards to, and you may even like to jot down ideas of what to include in your card, if you’d like to send different messages to different people.

You could also keep a note of people who send you cards, making it easier to update your list for the following year.

Meal plan

A meal planning section will save you a lot of time during the holiday season.

To create a meal plan first think about the different types of meals you’ll need between Christmas and New Year, which may include:

Christmas Eve meals
Christmas Day breakfast
Christmas Day lunch or dinner
Boxing Day meals
Leftover meals
Family breakfasts
Easy lunches
Snacks
Baking
Drinks

Once you’ve worked out what meals you’ll need to prepare for, list down the recipes you’ll be using, including any new recipes you’d like to try.

Once done you can go a step further and list the ingredients you’ll need, so when it comes time to purchase your ingredients, you’ll save heaps of time.

Christmas Day schedule

A Christmas Day schedule can be particularly useful if you’re hosting, or have a busy family Christmas Day planned.

To create your Christmas Day schedule, write down the things that need to happen and roughly when.

For example:

Breakfast
Open presents
Start preparing lunch
Eat lunch
Christmas activities
Dessert
Family visits
Christmas films
Bedtime

If you’re cooking, you can also include a cooking schedule showing when each dish needs to be prepared or put in the oven.

The aim of this section isn’t to schedule every minute of Christmas Day. It’s to make sure you don’t forget the practical things that need to happen.

Hosting details

If you’re hosting Christmas add a separate section to your planner to help you get organised for your guests.

You could record:

Guest list
Dietary requirements
Where everyone will sleep
Bedding needed
Food and drink preferences
Seating arrangements
Things guests need to bring

You could also make a list of anything you need to borrow or buy before your guests arrive, such as extra chairs, crockery or bedding.

Cleaning schedule

Rather than leaving all of your cleaning until the final few days before Christmas, use your Christmas planner to spread your cleaning jobs out.

Start by creating a simple list of the jobs you want to complete before Christmas, such as:

Change guest bedding
Clean the kitchen
Clean the bathroom
Tidy the living room
Clear space for Christmas gifts
Check the fridge and freezer
Put up decorations
Prepare the dining area

Break your jobs down over several weeks so you don’t end up trying to do everything at once.

Remember that your home doesn’t need to be perfect. Focus on the areas that will actually make a difference to your family’s Christmas.

Activities

One of the Christmas planner ideas that may be forgotten, but is still an important part of Christmas, is to record the activities that your family enjoys doing over the holidays.

Some ideas are:

Baking Christmas treats
Visiting a Christmas market
Going to see Santa
Watching Christmas films
Reading Christmas books
Going for a Christmas Day walk
Visiting family
Going to a pantomime or show
Having a Christmas movie night

Reflections

Once Christmas is over, spend a few minutes making notes for next year.

This is one of the most useful sections when thinking about Christmas planner ideas, because you’ll have forgotten many of the little details by the time the next Christmas comes around.

Ask yourself:

What worked well?
What didn’t work?
What did my family enjoy?
What did we have too much of?
What did we run out of?
What could I buy earlier next year?
What would I do differently?
Did I stay within my budget?
Which traditions do we want to repeat?

You can then use these notes to make next year’s Christmas planning much easier.

Creating a Christmas planner – a recap

A Christmas planner is a simple way to bring all your Christmas planning together in one place, so you don’t have to keep track of everything in your head.

The key is not to include everything. Your planner should make family life easier, not give you another list of things to maintain. Choose the sections that will genuinely help you feel more organised, and leave out anything you don’t need.

If you use the same planner each year, don’t forget to add a few notes after Christmas about what worked, what didn’t, and anything you’d like to remember for next year. These little reminders can make future Christmas planning much easier.

Ready to get more organised?

If you enjoyed these tips, don’t forget to download your FREE Organised Mum Life toolkit packed with simple planners and checklists to help make family life easier. Get your FREE toolkit here.

What planner section would make your Christmas planning easier this year?

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